Saturday, March 7, 2009

I work in the news business and I think, in general, the news agencies try to bring the most important issues to the public. However, churning out news for our twenty-four hour-a-day news networks, daily newspapers, and the massive number of Internet results in lot of repetition, sensationalism, and less-than-worthy stories making it out there.

But FirstCoastNews.Com just hit a new low today, totally embarrassing the news media with such tripe that they ought to be the laughing stock of the industry.

You know about the sad case of the little missing girl, Haleigh Cummings(pictured left) who has been missing for three weeks now. The news stories about this case are already a garish circus. Geraldo Rivera is doing his usual "irreverent" style of aggressive and tacky interviewing (though I did appreciate that he got Haleigh's father, Ronald Cummings, to look straight into the camera and lie like a dog that didn't EVER do drugs (meaning that the police must have falsely arrested him some ten times for cocaine, meth, marijuana, heroin, GHB, etc.

The girl's father, Ronald Cummings, spouts off obscenities and acts out in weird ways (check out that frightening tattoo he's got of Haleigh on his leg which looks more like the child bride of Chucky than the pretty little tyke). Add to this to a whole cast of squirrelly characters who should be on Jerry Springer - the girlfriend, Misty Croslin, who can't keep her story straight, Haleigh's mother's overly emotional fiance, and the creepy criminal cousin Missy claims is a pedophile. What should be serious news topic becomes a bad reality television show with daily outrageous episodes.

But, THIS, this "news" story just made me wonder if media outlets hire reporters and producers who just left their jobs at Petsmart the week before. This "news" story, which just appeared on FirstCoastNews.Com , required a reporter to actually drive out to this woman's house to get the "story, do the interview on camera and then get the piece approved by his boss for public viewing. Wait until I tell you the title of this "news" story! WOMEN DREAMS ABOUT HALEIGH CUMMINGS BEING IN MISSOURI.

Yes, Melanie (pictured at the top of the this post) with-no-last-name (hell, I wouldn't want them to put MY last name out there if I did an interview that made me look like I had an IQ of a Doritos chip) had a dream! That's right, folks, Melanie had a dream! Woo Hoo! Now, she doesn't even claim to be a psychic (which makes me mad as hell when media gives these frauds the time of day) or to regularly have dreams come true (like that stupid show on television). No, she simply had A dream! OMG! Breaking news! Melanie had a dream!

Well, Melanie apparently thought this dream was SO meaningful she had to go to the police with it. Even though the location at which she "saw" a dead Haleigh, a town called Addison, Missouri, doesn't even exist ...oh, wait, Melanie says she found a place in Missouri called Madison, and, in her very own words, that's close enough), she called the tip line and the television station with this earth-shattering information.

Okay, maybe this flaky goofball (I can say this without getting sued; watch the video - truth is on my side) really believes her dream will help the family or, perhaps, she is seeking her fifteen seconds of fame (and she got painfully way more than that with this interview). I don't have too much of a problem with Melanie. The world is full of fame seekers, nutcases, and weirdos and the media will be sought out by droves of them. But, and this is what has me irked, the media is supposed to be a professional entity that can tell a news story from a pile of steaming shit (this story) or an an expert in profiling or homicide investigation (someone like me) from a publicity seeking felonious moron (like bounty hunter Leonard Padilla). Yet, Padilla is brought onto Nancy Grace daily, not as part of the news story, but as a consultant, a correspondent, a professional with specialized knowledge which this buffoon clearly has exhibits he is lacking, and now, FirstCoastNews spends its time interviewing a stupid woman who had a stupid dream. WTF?

Hey, I have some "news for FirstCoast. Everyone has dreams and lots of people in Florida have had dreams about Haleigh. Is this really something to report? Do you honestly think anyone in the United States cares that some fat woman from a trailer park (okay, maybe she lives in a regular house) had a dream? Did the production team (which must have had the combined IQ of an entire bag of Doritos chips) actually discuss this "lead" and say, "Gosh, we have to get this incredible story?"

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By Pat Brown

"Killing for Sport is the most valuable insight into the minds of serial killers that you will ever read. While other profilers tend to conceal the clear facts behind complex technical language and psychobabble. Pat Brown actually tells it like it is."